Maine Native and Duke Star Cooper Flagg Declares for the NBA Draft and Is Projected to Be No. 1 Pick

Duke superstar freshman and Newport native Cooper Flagg has confirmed that he is officially entering the NBA draft.

Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick, made the announcement in a video shared to his social media on Monday.

“Duke fans, my teammates, the brotherhood, and everybody that was along for this journey: it was an incredible year, probably the best year of my life, and I have so much gratitude, I feel so blessed for all the opportunities that I was given,” Flagg said in a video posted to his Instagram, speaking over clips of his freshman year highlights.

“Duke has always been a dream for me, but I’m excited to announce that I’ll be entering my name into the 2025 NBA Draft,” Flagg said “Today is just the beginning, but I have the brotherhood with me for life.”

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A post shared by Cooper Flagg (@cooper_flagg)

The 18-year-old Flagg, who briefly attended Nokomis Regional High School, will be leaving Duke University after a momentous freshman year to go pro as the NBA Draft’s likely top overall pick. The draft will occur June 25-26 in New York City.

“He’s so sincere. Loves his community, loves his family even more. I mean, he’s a very grounded, great kid,” said Terrie Murray, Administrative Assistant and Secretary at Nokomis Regional High School told WABI-TV earlier this month.

The NBA Draft lottery is May 12, with Utah, Washington and Charlotte with the best odds of winning the No. 1 pick.

The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in his freshman season, leading the Duke Blue Devils in all five categories to a 35-4 record and a Final Four appearance. He was the consensus National Player of the Year.

“Really proud of Cooper for the special season that he had this year,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer told ESPN on Monday. “I think the accolades speak for itself, with what he did, winning every National Player of the Year award. His highlights, his statistics, the ways he impacted the game on both ends of the floor, really in every category, was off the charts. As good of a freshman season that a guy has had here.”

“But to me, the separator and the joy of coaching Cooper is the person he was every day, the teammate that he was. Never about statistics or anything other than creating an environment and helping his team to win,” Scheyer said. “And we won a lot of games and had a lot of success and a lot of times that environment is created from your best player. And Cooper did an incredible job in every facet of our program, on and off the court, with what he’s done.”